At 01:28 UTC on February 26, 2022, a developer who signs his work protolambda opened pull request #4844 on Ethereum's proposal repository1. Its title read "EIP-4844: Shard Blob Transactions". Seven minutes later he posted the discussion thread2. The repository merged the draft on March 2, 2022.
The proposal added a new kind of data to Ethereum blocks, the blob3. A blob is a chunk of data that rollups post cheaply. Ethereum nodes delete it after 4096 epochs, about 18 days4. Rollups are separate chains that batch many trades and post the results to Ethereum.
Blobs reached Ethereum's main network on March 13, 20245. The day before, Base's median fee stood at $0.58888. On March 15, 2024, it was $0.0038. Base's payments to Ethereum fell too, from $9,256,041 in the first quarter of 2024 to $28,362 in the third quarter of 202610.
A pull request from ETHDenver
The idea started at ETHDenver in 202256. There, protolambda “led a hackathon team to draft and implement a proposal for EIP-4844,” his own post says. Ethereum.org says the nickname proto-danksharding comes from two researchers, Protolambda and Dankrad Feist4.
Seven people sign the EIP, Vitalik Buterin and Feist among them3. Protolambda's post lists his real name, Diederik Loerakker6. The post describes his part in one line. He “acted as a bridge from research to engineering, drafting the initial specifications and implementing an execution-layer prototype,” he wrote.
The EIP's authors, Buterin, Feist and protolambda among them, set out the stakes. “Rollups are in the short and medium term, and possibly in the long term, the only trustless scaling solution for Ethereum,” they wrote3. Fees on Ethereum itself "have been very high for months," the same text says.
On February 28, 2022, Danny Ryan of the Ethereum Foundation replied in the thread, under his forum name djrtwo2. "Great work @protolambda and others!" he wrote, before asking for more tests of large blocks. Ryan later helped coordinate the work, protolambda's post says6.
Both sides, in their own words
Did blobs pay off for Ethereum as well as for its rollups?
“The highest-value transactions will happen on Ethereum, while rollups will grow the pie by providing plenty of space for users to transact on Ethereum”
“The introduction of blobspace in the Dencun upgrade made L2 settlement significantly cheaper, enabling profitable L2s like Base—which has earned ~$94M in profit while paying just ~$4.9M to Ethereum”
What the coverage missed
On November 24, 2022, The Block covered the plan7. Vishal Chawla's story said core developers signaled support for proto-danksharding. Chawla quoted Liam Horne, chief executive of OP Labs, who said fees "could be lowered ~100x". The story left out protolambda and Feist, the two people the plan is named for.
The Ethereum Foundation's launch post, dated February 27, 2024, credited the plan's "ETHDenver inception"5. That post lists EIP numbers and client releases. Names of the authors live in the EIP itself3.
Blobs on the main network
Dencun, the upgrade that carried EIP-4844, went live at epoch 2695685. That was 13:55 UTC on March 13, 2024.
Fees moved within days. Base's median fee was $0.5888 on March 12 and $0.0038 on March 15, growthepie's daily data shows8. OP Mainnet's went from $0.5353 to $0.0128 on March 14. Arbitrum One's went from $0.5531 to $0.0905 on March 15.
Horne's figure of about 100 times fits Base, whose fee fell more than 150-fold in those three days8. OP Mainnet's fell about 42-fold and Arbitrum One's about sixfold.
Monthly numbers show the same step. In February 2024, the median fee averaged $0.2712 on Arbitrum One, $0.2296 on OP Mainnet and $0.2365 on Base8. By April 2024 it averaged $0.009, $0.0287 and $0.0272. March mixes days on both sides of the launch.
Base's median fee fell from $0.2365 to $0.0272 after blobs went live in March 2024
Monthly average of each day's median transaction fee on three rollups, in US dollars
- Arbitrum One
- OP Mainnet
- Base
- Height: Median fee, US dollars
Source: growthepie [8].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Arbitrum One | OP Mainnet | Base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2024 | $0.1619 | $0.1348 | $0.1291 |
| Feb 2024 | $0.2712 | $0.2296 | $0.2365 |
| Mar 2024 | $0.2579 | $0.2245 | $0.3015 |
| Apr 2024 | $0.0090 | $0.0287 | $0.0272 |
| May 2024 | $0.0057 | $0.0205 | $0.0260 |
| Jun 2024 | $0.0065 | $0.0207 | $0.0034 |
Cheaper fees came with more use. Base processed 55.7 million transactions in the first quarter of 20249. Its busiest quarter so far was the fourth quarter of 2025, at 1,183.0 million. In the third quarter of 2026 it processed 797.4 million. Ethereum's own main network grew from 107.5 million to 199.3 million over the same span.
Base processed 797.4 million transactions in Q3 2026, up from 55.7 million in Q1 2024
Transactions per quarter on three rollups and on Ethereum's main network, in millions
- Arbitrum One
- OP Mainnet
- Base
- Ethereum mainnet
- Height: Transactions, millions
Source: growthepie [9].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Arbitrum One | OP Mainnet | Base | Ethereum mainnet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 2023 | 74.1M | 27.2M | 30.2M | 99.1M |
| Q1 2024 | 86.9M | 38.8M | 55.7M | 107.5M |
| Q2 2024 | 176.1M | 50.8M | 236.4M | 106.9M |
| Q3 2024 | 165.5M | 50.9M | 368.0M | 103.3M |
| Q4 2024 | 188.7M | 81.4M | 661.1M | 112.1M |
| Q1 2025 | 173.3M | 80.3M | 768.0M | 110.4M |
| Q2 2025 | 187.7M | 90.8M | 802.3M | 121.1M |
| Q3 2025 | 243.7M | 114.1M | 932.3M | 147.3M |
| Q4 2025 | 266.5M | 162.8M | 1,183.0M | 145.2M |
| Q1 2026 | 264.2M | 193.0M | 904.2M | 200.4M |
| Q2 2026 | 150.6M | 146.6M | 820.5M | 203.9M |
| Q3 2026 | 142.1M | 148.1M | 797.4M | 199.3M |
By September 2026, Base's median fee averaged $0.0013 and Arbitrum One's $0.00488.
The case for blobs
Dankrad Feist made the case in an Ethereum Foundation Reddit AMA on September 5, 2024. He is the other half of the nickname. “The highest-value transactions will happen on Ethereum, while rollups will grow the pie by providing plenty of space for users to transact on Ethereum,” he wrote, Unchained reported11. He called the relationship "symbiotic".
The Foundation's own upgrade notes support his read on demand. “Since the Dencun upgrade, layer 2 usage has grown substantially, often reaching the current 9 blob per block limit,” it wrote in November 202513. Fusaka, the next upgrade, went live on December 3, 2025. Its schedule raises the blob target and limit to 14 and 21 in later steps.
Base answered the rent question itself. “Today, Base already pays Ethereum fees for every transaction on Base. All transactions are settled on Ethereum, and so far, Base has paid Ethereum more than $20 million in settlement fees since Base's inception,” a Base spokesperson told Cointelegraph12.
Protolambda framed the launch as a team effort. “The path ahead is filled with opportunities and challenges, but if the story of EIP-4844 teaches us anything, it's that the Ethereum community is more than capable of turning visionary ideas into reality,” he wrote on March 13, 20246.
The case against
Tanay Ved, an analyst at Coin Metrics, put numbers on the worry in April 2025. “The introduction of blobspace in the Dencun upgrade made L2 settlement significantly cheaper, enabling profitable L2s like Base—which has earned ~$94M in profit while paying just ~$4.9M to Ethereum,” he wrote15. The shift "reduced mainnet transaction demand, reshaping Ethereum’s economic dynamics," Ved added.
James Beck, head of growth at ENS Labs, pressed the point at Cornell Tech's blockchain conference in late April 2025. By Cointelegraph's account, he said rollups keep all of their sequencing fees12.
The rent numbers line up with that view. Arbitrum One paid Ethereum $20,019,987 in the first quarter of 2024 and $6,654 in the third quarter of 202610. OP Mainnet paid $14,183,255 and then $9,427. Base, with 797.4 million transactions that quarter, paid $28,3629.
Unchained found that OP Mainnet kept $321.31 for every $1 it paid Ethereum in August 202411. The same report said ETH's supply had grown by 262,493.37 ETH since April 3, 2024, citing ultrasound.money. More ETH was being issued than burned, by that count.
What to watch
Fusaka also carried EIP-7918, which gives blobs a reserve price tied to the regular gas fee1314. The next readings will test it. Base paid Ethereum $376,523 in the fourth quarter of 2025, the quarter Fusaka went live, and $39,853 in the first quarter of 202610.
Feist's case holds if rollup growth keeps pulling high-value trades back to Ethereum. Ved's case gains with each quarter that rollup traffic climbs while rent stays in the tens of thousands of dollars10.
Sources
- protolambda, "EIP-4844: Shard Blob Transactions (pull request #4844)," GitHub, February 26, 2022, https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/pull/4844
- protolambda, "EIP-4844: Shard Blob Transactions," Ethereum Magicians, February 26, 2022, https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/eip-4844-shard-blob-transactions/8430
- Vitalik Buterin, Dankrad Feist, Diederik Loerakker, George Kadianakis, Matt Garnett, Mofi Taiwo and Ansgar Dietrichs, "EIP-4844: Shard Blob Transactions," Ethereum Improvement Proposals, created February 25, 2022, https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4844
- ethereum.org, "Danksharding," read October 13, 2026, https://ethereum.org/en/roadmap/danksharding/
- Protocol Support Team, "Dencun Mainnet Announcement," Ethereum Foundation Blog, February 27, 2024, https://blog.ethereum.org/2024/02/27/dencun-mainnet-announcement
- protolambda, "From EIP to Ethereum mainnet: the collective triumph of 4844," Optimism, March 13, 2024, https://optimism.io/blog/from-eip-to-ethereum-mainnet-the-collective-triumph-of-4844
- Vishal Chawla, "Ethereum core developers signal support for 'proto-danksharding'," The Block, November 24, 2022, https://www.theblock.co/post/189829/ethereum-core-developers-signal-support-for-proto-danksharding
- growthepie, "Transaction Costs," daily and monthly median fees by chain, read October 13, 2026, https://www.growthepie.com/fundamentals/transaction-costs
- growthepie, "Transaction Count," quarterly totals by chain, read October 13, 2026, https://www.growthepie.com/fundamentals/transaction-count
- growthepie, "Rent Paid to Ethereum," quarterly totals by chain in US dollars, read October 13, 2026, https://www.growthepie.com/fundamentals/rent-paid
- Sage D. Young, "Are L2s 'Parasitic'? Analysis Shows Ethereum Only Gets a Tiny Percentage of Fees," Unchained, September 5, 2024, https://unchainedcrypto.com/are-l2s-parasitic-analysis-shows-ethereum-only-gets-a-tiny-percentage-of-fees/
- Andrew Singer, "Are layer 2s good for Ethereum, or are they 'extractive?'," Cointelegraph, May 8, 2025, https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/layer-2s-good-for-ethereum-or-extractive
- Protocol Coordination Team, "Fusaka Mainnet Announcement," Ethereum Foundation Blog, November 6, 2025, https://blog.ethereum.org/2025/11/06/fusaka-mainnet-announcement
- Anders Elowsson, Ben Adams and Francesco D'Amato, "EIP-7918: Blob base fee bounded by execution cost," Ethereum Improvement Proposals, created March 25, 2025, https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7918
- Tanay Ved, "The Evolving Relationship Between Ethereum and Its Layer-2s," Coin Metrics State of the Network, April 8, 2025, https://coinmetrics.substack.com/p/state-of-the-network-issue-306